


Ghost Defense System

by EchoGhost



Series: Phanniemay & Dannymay Challenges [11]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Bleeding, Bleeding Ectoplasm, Ectoplasm, Gen, Hospitalization, Identity Reveal but Not Really, Injury Recovery, Jumping to Conclusions, family bonding via fighting off ghosts, getting sick, not correcting those conclusions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:53:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25884646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EchoGhost/pseuds/EchoGhost
Summary: To keep the students of Casper High safe, the school board enacts a new Ghost Defense System. It works a little too well.
Relationships: Jack Fenton/Maddie Fenton
Series: Phanniemay & Dannymay Challenges [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1847095
Comments: 12
Kudos: 195





	1. Rituals

**Author's Note:**

> These were originally posted as part of the PhannieMay and DannyMay prompt challenges during 2017 and 2020, the majority being from 2020.

“I can’t believe that they turned down our proposal!” Jack’s voice carrying up the stairs easily.

“As the town’s leading experts I seriously think they need to reconsider as well.” Maddie added just as exuberantly.

“Mom, Dad, please, they said they didn’t want weapons at the school, Ecto or otherwise. Can you please not make a big deal about this.” Jazz tried her best to talk some reason into their parents.

Danny groaned as he pulled himself out of bed, knowing them they’d try to start patrols around the building until they got their way if Jazz couldn’t get them to settle down. He quickly got dressed and made his way downstairs and hoped he could slip into the kitchen before he left without getting noticed.

He was noticed. “Danny sweetie, you’ve got to let the teachers know how much better a job we’d do if they just let us!”

Danny carefully edged his way around the room towards the PopTarts nodding, “Sure, mom I’ll let them know.” he grabbed a pack and had to duck under his mom’s outstretched arm to exit the room. “Well me and Jazz better get going, wouldn’t want to be late.”

His parents relented, not wanting the school to have any reason not to trust their level of responsibility. Or at least that’s what they said.

Danny was able to get to his first period class on time and was feeling relatively good about the day in general. Know this is when things start to go wrong for him, he did his best to enjoy the day, but was careful to keep his guard up too.

Strangely there wasn’t a single ghost attack. The only problem he had was that Dash failed his Lit. test and Danny had to put up a good chase. After 3rd period he started to get a headache. He figured it was all the unnecessary running he had to do.

By lunch he was feeling so drained he lost his appetite. Must be coming down with something, was all he could think of when his friends asked if he was alright.

In 8th period Sam spoke up. “You look terrible. Why don’t you just go home?”

“With the day almost over? I might as well stick it out.” his argument punctuated by sniffling and mouth breathing.

“Can you even breath?”

“Not out my nose. it’s ...busy?” Danny paused, that wasn’t the right word. “Tuck, what’s the word that’s like a traffic jam for your face?”

“Congested? And you look more than just congested man. Seriously, just go home. I think you’re turning green.”

“Na, I’m fine.”

“Why did you even get out of bed this morning?”

“Easy. I wasn’t sick this morning.” Danny explained. “Did I fight any ghosts today?” everything in his brain was so foggy now.

“No man, that was yesterday. There hasn’t been any ghost activity all day actually.”

“Weird.” Danny shivered and was starting to reconsider staying.

“I guess the new ghost defense system is working then.” Sam shrugged, or at least Danny assumed she did, it was getting harder to keep his eyelids from closing.

“New ghost defense system? But my parents said they didn’t get to do it.” He tried his best to stifle a cough, but only made his headache worse.

“Oh no, they found some more natural ways to do it. I think they went through and burned sage in all the classrooms and old school witchy stuff like that.” Tucker explained as he checked his PDA.

“Hey Danny, you said you were feeling fine this morning right?” Sam asked cautiously.

“Yeah.” he was getting tired of sniffling and rubbed his runny nose with the back of his hand.

“Then maybe you’ll want to go home now. Because you’re bleeding.”

Danny felt the thick liquid slowly start to fall from his nose. Another wave of nausea hit and he coughed again, a horrible wet cough.

He pulled his hand away to see that he was, in fact, bleeding. But it wasn’t red.

It was green.


	2. Ooze

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the school’s Ghost Defense System adversely effects Danny, Maddie begins her quest for answers.

Maddie couldn’t stop pacing. She had tried to sit, she really had tried, but all this waiting, the not knowing, she couldn’t take it.

The four of them had been in the waiting room for what felt like years. It was only a few hours, but still much longer than she ever wanted to wait.

Just this morning she’d seen her children off to school, both happy and healthy. It was beyond surreal that she’d find herself in the hospital waiting room almost eight hours later as her son was fighting for his life.

At first, she was suspicious when Vlad appeared in the hospital with his own special team of doctors that he had somehow talked his way into letting them be the only ones to see to Danny. She knew about his infatuation with her but did her best to ignore it. She was also very aware of how close he tried to get to Danny, and how much her son didn’t like it.

If it were any other day she might have said something, but not today. Not after Jazz had described Danny’s condition, as best she could make it out through all her daughter’s tears.

Somehow the school’s new ghost defense system came with some horrible side effects, ones her son was paying for.

But why?

Knowing she wouldn’t find any answers here she decided to head to the school. They needed someone to clean up the mess anyway, it was a biohazard after all.

* * *

Mr. Lancer showed her the way and did little to fill the silent halls. He simply opened the door and let her inside the classroom, no fuss at all.

Even with the lights off, she could see it. The bright glowing splatter of ectoplasm. It covered the desk, slowly dripping in long viscus strands to join the puddle on the floor. There was a small trail that led out the door, probably from when they carried him out. She had noticed small samples as they had made their way to the classroom.

There was so much more than she was expecting.

Jazz said it had come out of him, out his nose, in bursts past his lips when he coughed. Her daughter said before he lost consciousness, he was crying it out as well.

She had heard of things like this happening before. It was usually just in old stories about seances, but it was possible.

She still didn’t expect _this_ much.

How did he manage to have that much ectoplasm in his system and not show any signs of it? Or was that why all their inventions kept keying into him? With enough ecto-contamination maybe it could register as a small ghost?

But there was no way a person could possibly survive that.

Her mind conjured images of her baby boy in the hospital. Struggling to breathe as that putrid slime oozed its way out of his mouth.

She shook the image from her mind. She needed to collect these samples and she needed to trace where this particular strain came from.

If she could do that maybe she could find the answers she was looking for.


	3. Isolation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny wakes up at home when the last thing he remembers is puking his ectoplasmic guts out at school. To make things worse his mother is finally suspicious and is starting to put the pieces about him together.

Danny opened his eyes slowly and was slightly confused.

He jerked into full alertness when the memory hit him. The last thing he knew was coughing up ectoplasm in the back of his English class. So how did he get home?

A warm hand touched his arm and he turned to see Jazz was at his bedside. "Hey, it's okay little brother. You're safe."

He relaxed at her words, "What happened?" His voice came out surprisingly groggy.

"What do you remember?"

He recalled the events of that day, how he'd gotten so ill, and wasn't sure why. "Wait does everyone know?"

"They know you had a bad reaction to the school's ghost defense system, but you weren't the only one. Just the first."

Danny cocked his head in confusion, if it was ghost-related he understood why it affected him, but what did she mean first?

"The system was designed to purge any lingering ectoplasm from the building in the hopes that it would keep the ghosts at bay. Unfortunately, the building wasn't the problem."

Danny pulled his legs closer as Jazz explained further.

"It turns out that whenever a ghost overshadows someone trace amounts of ectoplasm is left behind in the person's system. And so many kids at school have been controlled by one ghost or another. Not to mention the ghost bug incident."

"So that happened to everyone?" Danny asked slightly horrified at the idea of the entire school having all that mess coming out of their faces.

"It varied from person to person. Some only had a little nosebleed, some cried it out. Sam and Tucker sure had a lot to cough up, but I just had a headache and it came out my ears, got all in my hair. Super gross. So they had to send everyone home, closed school for a week. You definitely had it the worse."

"How bad was it?"

"You went to the hospital, Danny. Vlad swooped in with his specialist, but you were still there for a day. We brought you home last night."

Danny was quiet for a moment. He'd never been exposed to something like that before.

"And Danny I don't want to rush you, but Mom and Dad are going to want to see you now that you're awake. Are you ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." He shrugged.

"Okay. Well, they might have some questions. Mom definitely has questions. Once they figured out why it was happening, I think Dad was quick to dismiss your case and lump you in with everyone else, but Mom's been oddly quiet."

"Which means she's thinking. Great. You don't think she knows, do you?"

"Doubt it. Unless she thinks it's even remotely possible, but she might have her own theories."

Danny nodded wondering if now was finally the right time to tell them the truth.

"If you want, I can stay here with you." Then as if she could read his mind, "in case you wanted to tell them."

Danny shook his head, "It's fine. I'll take my chances that they won't ask any hard-hitting questions right away."

As he waited, he decided to hold back on saying anything about his ghost side. He figured it would be better to see where they were first, maybe that would be easier.

His dad was beyond excited to see him awake. "Hey, there's my boy! Look and the color is back on his face too! Knew no ghost could keep my boy down! We Fenton's are just too tough."

"Now Jack, it wasn't a full ghost. Just the lingering remains clinging to him."

"Yeah. You think we should do our house like they did the school? That place was like a sauna, really cleans you out good!"

Danny couldn't help the small audible squeak that passed his lips, "please no."

Whether his mom heard him or not he wasn't sure, but she still rejected the idea, "You know how much I distrust the sort of things they used. It's too many variables and is in no way scientific. We can work on a purifier for that room off the lab, but there's no need to coat the whole house in magic."

Danny sighed then realized something about what his Dad said was off, "Did you guys go in there?"

"Of course sweetie, we had to clean up the school and we're the only ones qualified to handle such hazardous materials. And your father wanted to see how it affected himself, so he spent the night there last night."

"And you're okay?" Danny asked hesitantly, surprised by his Dad's boldness.

"Right as rain Dan-o!"

Maddie turned to Jack, placing a gentle hand on his arm, "Jack dear, why don't you go down and make Danny some soup. He hasn't eaten since yesterday."

Jack was quick to oblige and ran off leaving Danny alone with his mom.

She was quiet as she pulled up his desk chair next to the bed. "Danny did Jazz explain what happened." He nodded and she continued, "Good, because your father and I have been documenting this," she hesitated, " _phenomena_ and I needed to ask you a few questions. Just so we have all the data."

Danny picked a loose thread in his comforter instead of looking at her.

"You got infected with that ghost bug like your sister, right?"

Danny couldn't hide his surprise as that was the question she had started with. "Uh," technically no, but he did pretend. "Yeah?" Where was she going with this?

"And what was your symptom?"

"I," what had he faked again? Oh right, "invisibility."

"But you didn't get quarantined immediately, why was that?"

He didn't realize she noticed that, "I actually had Tucker carry me there, I guess no one noticed me at first. Because, you know, invisible." He shrugged hoping that was good enough.

"Oh sweetie I'm sorry."

"It's okay Mom." If he was honest, sometimes it was just easier to be invisible.

"Okay, well I guess my other question is have you ever been overshadowed?"

"No."

"Are you sure? There hasn't been a time when you had gaps in your memory or hadn't felt like yourself?"

"I- actually yes. Did I tell you I had to switch lockers earlier this year?" With her curiosity piqued he continued, "Yeah, a ghost broke my locker, so I had to move. The thing is the locker I moved to had this rumor attached to it. I didn't believe it at first. I was wrong."

Danny sighed at the memory of how his pettiness got him trapped in the first place.

"The locker was haunted and the ghost, well he got mad at me and decided I needed to be punished. He took over my body by pushing me out and with no place else to go I got trapped in his former confinement. A mirror inside the locker. I'm just glad that I was able to get Sam and Tucker's attention. It took 50 years for Sydney to free himself and I really didn't want to wait that long."

"The ghost evicted you from your own body?"

"Yeah?"

"How long after the accident was it?"

"I don't know. About a month and a half maybe."

She pulled him into a tight hug, "No wonder you were hit so hard. I figured the lab accident must have left you with some residual ectoplasm, but you seemed fine.” She pulled back and held his face in her hands, her eyes searching, “You didn't get ecto-acne like Vlad did, so I figured you didn't have any direct contact. Oh and to be so viciously possessed so soon afterward…" she didn't finish her sentence, only hugged him more.

He didn't correct her. He simply hugged her back.


	4. Mask

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After her conversation with Danny only leads to more questions, and more worry, Maddie dives deeper into her son’s mysteries. And maybe this time she’ll find the truth.

Maddie couldn't stop thinking about what Danny had told her. Not only had a ghost possessed him, a feat she thought was only capable in horror movies once the act of Overshadowing came to light, but it was so _intense_.

He'd been pushed out of his body? His consciousness _removed_? How was that even possible?

Was that what would happen to anyone who got possessed or was it because of his ectoplasmic contamination? Was that just the specialty of that ghost?

But the thing that plagued her mind was worse than the implications of potential, worse than the theories about these monsters that she could cook up.

It was her worry about her son.

He seemed almost casual when regaling this horror story, practically blasé about the whole thing. Heck, he had apparently nearly _forgotten_ all about it? How could something so intensely dramatic not leave a bigger mark on his psyche? It was almost like this wasn't the worst thing that ever happened to him.

Maddie froze. Not the worst thing? What could be _worse_?

What else hadn't he told her?

She had to know. If she couldn't get the information from the source, she'd do her research, someone had to know something right?

Maddie had started by asking her ever perceptive daughter. Surely she would notice if Danny was hiding things.

Jazz didn't reveal much. Other than saying that Danny did his best to clear out the second any ghosts showed up. She also promised to keep a closer eye on him.

Maddie just hoped she'd be able to catch anything before it got too bad.

Next Maddie waited until school was back in session, a few days in, to let the routine fall back into place before she continued her quest for knowledge.

She changed into her civilian clothes before making her way to the school, she wasn't here for ghosts.

Maddie knocked on the doorframe to Mr. Lancer's office and waited to be invited in.

"Ah, Mrs. Fenton. What do I owe the pleasure?"

"I was hoping to ask," she hesitated, not really sure how to put it without sounding like a bad mother, "to ask you about my son, Danny. Has he ever been attacked by a ghost at school? Been directly targeted?"

" _Danny_? Oh heavens no. He's always the first to run for cover. No idea where he hides, but it must be effective."

"Oh?"

"No one can ever seem to find him. Even his friends end up sputtering for answers."

"How often does this happen?"

"It'd be easier to ask how often it _doesn't_. The ghost attacks on the school are almost daily." He paused then gave her a concerning look, "I thought you of all people would know that."

"I- Right of course." Gosh was it really that bad? No wonder they resorted to magic to try and protect themselves. Not that it did them any good.

"Then again, now that you bring it up. Danny isn't always just the first to leave. It's more than that." Mr. Lancer gasped, "Wuthering Heights! I think he tends to leave _before_ the ghosts show up! I don't know how I didn't notice it before. I'll have to confer with the rest of the staff to be sure, but gosh if that's true he's like some sort of human ghost alert system."

"That reminds me I have something I need to do at home." She fibbed before ducking out of the office.

Her mind raced as she sped home. If Lancer was right, she'd need to test it.

The plan itself wasn't complicated. The hard part was setting up the pieces first. She checked her watch and waited.

Danny was surprisingly quiet as he entered, if she wasn't actively watching he would have just slipped by completely. When did he get so sneaky?

"Hi honey, how was school?" She called from the kitchen making sure she was loud enough.

"Fine, I guess." He shrugged as he made his way towards the fridge.

With him distracted she held up her hand and used her fingers to countdown from 5. Her eyes watched Danny intently the whole time.

He was still rummaging around for food when he abruptly stopped, his body went ridged with a gasp. Quickly pulling his head out and slammed the door. "Gotta go!"

"Danny, wait!" She easily outran him and blocked his path. "Where are you going?"

"Bathroom," he blurted out, "geez can't a guy go to the bathroom in his own house?"

Well, he was definitely getting better at lying, still bad, but better. "Danny you don't have to hide. Your Dad can handle it."

"Handle what?" He asked but his attention was clearly split. His need to flee apparent in his fidgeting posture.

"The ghost. It's just a small one."

"Ghost? What ghost? Who said anything about a ghost?"

She placed a hand on his shoulder, "Sweetie it's okay. I know."

"Know? Know what exactly?" He asked, pulling back half a step.

"That you're psychic. I just don't understand why you thought you needed to hide it."

"Psychic? I'm not psychic." He denied.

"Then what do you call it?"

Danny was beyond exasperated, "What are you talking about?"

She sighed and urged him to sit down. After some reluctance he relented. "I had a hunch and needed to test it.” She started, “Your father is outside, behind the fence, he released one of the samples."

"You released a ghost outside? On purpose? Why?"

"To see your reaction."

It only took a moment for Danny to catch on. "My ghost sense?"

"Is that what you call it?" That was so precious, he must have named it so it didn't seem so scary. "So how does it work?"

He gave a noncommittal, "I dunno." He leaned back in his chair, "and I don't get why you think that makes me psychic."

"You don't need to see or hear the ghost, and yet you are just _aware_ that it's around. How is that _not_ psychic? And does it only work on ghosts?"

"What else would it work on?" He asked, honestly confused.

"So it's not just a general danger sense." Maddie mused aloud.

"Don't think so." He looked away suddenly self-conscious, "so you're not mad?"

"Mad? Why would I be mad?"

"Because I lied."

"I can't say I'm happy about it, but I'm not mad at you."

"Just disappointed then." Danny slummed so deep into his chair that you could hardly call it sitting. Only his back touched the chair, his arms hung listlessly at his sides.

"No, I'm just confused. Why did you think you had to hide it in the first place?"

He sighed and pulled himself back up. "I don't know." He kept his gaze down at his hands, "At first I didn't understand it. I thought it would just go away if I ignored it. But it didn't. It got stronger," his eyes flicked up to her, watching for her reaction.

She did her best to show support, doing all she could to hide the hurt in her heart seeing him like this.

It worked and he continued, "I haven't really tested it. Not scientifically. It starts with this feeling, like I’m not alone. Then I get cold and see my breath. It always points me in the right direction."

"Away from the dangerous ghost?"

"No. Always towards it."

She wanted to question that, but he stood up abruptly and stared out the window.

"What was the ghost you released?" A visible white-blue mist escaped his lips as he spoke, slowly drifting up to the ceiling before making its way to the window. Just as he said it would.

"It was just a small one. A little animal looking one."

"Well, it's not alone now." He turned back to her and held out his hand, "let's go help Dad." He smiled despite the mist in his mouth. The courage he was showing her filled her with a level of pride she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to verbalize. 

So she took his hand instead.


	5. Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny and Maddie rush out to Jack’s aid as the simple test to reveal Danny’s ghost sense backfires.

Psychic? His mom figured out his ghost sense and went straight to _psychic_?

What bugged him more was, if that was the test, how did she know to test it? How did she find out about it?

Danny tried to push his questions aside as he opened the back gate, his mother close behind. They stepped into the alley to find his dad fighting off a small army of ghost rats.

Their toxic green fur bristled as they hissed. Each one did their best to try and bite Jack, but the thick jumpsuit didn't give way to the hordes of tiny teeth.

"Jack, why didn't you call for backup?" Maddie asked as her own ecto-gun whined in preparation.

"Oh hey hon, sorry, they just sort of popped up." He let down his guard a bit and turned to see Danny, "So it worked then?"

Seeing the opportunity, the largest of the rats set its beady red-eyed sights on Jack's throat. On impulse Danny punched the rat mid lunge, knocking it into the neighbor's trash cans. He held out his hand for his mom, "Blaster."

She didn't hesitate to place the cool metal gun in his hands and he easily knocked back the six closest rats in quick succession then frowned when he felt the gun start to overheat. Great, he was stuck in a fight with a gun that couldn't keep up. How the heck did his parents get anything done?

"Nice shooting, tex! Good to know you inherited your mother's great aim."

Danny chuckled back nervously. It definitely wasn't because of months of never-ending practice. "Video games." Maybe they'd buy that answer.

"Well, I guess we better have a game night later." His dad cheerfully exclaimed.

"Fight now, play later." Maddie chided as she daringly rolled in front of them to take out a few more rats with expert precision.

Danny bit his lip and purposely missed two easy shots, one too far forward and one just past the tail of another. He counted to three in his head before shooting the third right between the eyes.

It was bittersweet ghost fighting with his parents. Sure, it was nice he wasn't on the receiving end, but using only their equipment and having to react at what felt like half speed really drilled in how important his ghost side was. If he was on his own he could have cleaned this up easy, five minutes tops.

They were currently pushing the 20-minute mark.

"Mads, you got any spare reloads?"

She fished in her back pocket and held out a full cartridge, "I thought I reminded you to set your empties on the charger after our last outing?"

Danny took the cartridge and traded with his father's now empty one.

"I did. I just forgot to put them back in my pocket." He reloaded flawlessly and was quick to shoot again, even if he did miss.

Danny palmed the empty one and quickly hit the release on his own gun as an idea formed. He passed his mom his own nearly empty cartridge, then took a half step backward so he wouldn't be in his father's peripherals before focusing his attention on the empty cartridge in his hand. He really hoped this worked.

He focused on drawing out just a small portion of his ghost energy and poured it into the container. It hardly took any effort and he slipped the cartridge back in barely a second later.

He lined up his next shot. That huge rat had returned, and Danny had a feeling the fight would end with that one.

The rat king exploded in a glorious shower of ectoplasm. Unfortunately, so did the gun.

Danny was knocked back on his butt from the recoil and felt incredibly stupid for thinking that would actually work.

"Danny are you alright?" His mom popped up from her battle stance and rushed to his aid.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Sorry about the gun, didn't know it would explode." He shook his hand trying to get rid of the weird warm tingling sensation.

"It's fine Dann-o, we got plenty more where that came from." He clapped a hand on his shoulder as he holstered his blaster.

"Why do you think it's your fault?" His mom asked as she examined his hand.

Crud. He really didn't think that one through.

"Pulsed it!" He blurted once he remembered how he had come up with the idea in the first place. "In Doomed, there's this glitch that if you hit both trigger keys at the same time when you aren't dual-wielding the game thinks you're holding two guns in one hand and fires a shot that's twice as powerful. It's my favorite glitch because it doubles exponentially every time you use it! It's fantastic!" He shrugged and added, "That is of course as long as you don't use it past level nine. If you try it in level ten you get stuck in a reload loop and the only way out is death."

“But how did you know that would work with an ecto-gun?”

“Because of the double click trigger. The first click it charges and then you fire. I just double tapped it so it would overcharge.”

It didn’t seem like such a crazy leap in logic. Sure they didn’t have knowledge of the game, but still. He figured anyone with who knew both would be able to connect those dots. And he said as much to his parents.

“True. If I had known about your game, I might have considered that.” She paused and looked him deep in the eyes, “But _you_ didn’t have prior knowledge of that weapon. You couldn’t have. It was a prototype.”

“Prototype? You mean that wasn’t just a regular one?”

“No, what made that one unique was the double-action trigger. I made it that way so it would be quicker and quieter. That gun didn’t make that distinctive power-up whine because it would only charge enough to fire each shot individually.” Maddie explained carefully. "Two actions per each trigger pull."

“Then how did you know?” Jack asked.

Now that she had mentioned it, none of the ecto-weaponry had that type of trigger, yet he knew _that one_ did. Wow, maybe his mom really was on to something.

"Because I'm psychic."


End file.
